Thursday, February 24, 2011

I don't think I've ever mentioned here that Doug served a mission in Texas (San Antonio, English speaking). His first encounter with tamales was not with frozen, store-bought tamales, or even restaurant tamales, but fresh, handmade tamales in a family's home. It must have been a memorable experience.

We had some neighbors from Mexico, here in our apartment complex, and the mom said that she would invite us over when she made tamales so we could learn how it was done. Unfortunately, the day that she sent the kids over to tell us it was tamale day just happened to be the day that we were going to the fair. And then they moved. Alas. So we did not get to learn tamale making from Mrs. Medina.

This Monday, while Kate was off enjoying the Presidents' day holiday at her friend Maddy's house, we made our first attempt at our own chicken tamales. Doug had previously purchased the corn husks and masa, and looked up recipes online. (We didn't follow just one recipe, so I don't have a specific one to link to.)

Initial assembly. Rolling them up in the corn husks is a lot like using a bamboo mat to roll sushi. Practically the same. My sushi-rolling experience definitely came in handy.

All wrapped up and ready to steam. They weren't holding together very well, so we tied little strips of corn husk around them. I think they look kind of cute that way, like little corn husk dolls.

And after steaming! They were a bit crumbly put tasted pretty good. Not bad at all for the first try. If anyone out there would like to share their tamale-making expertise, we'd appreciate any tips!